Origin of Chinese Buddhism

Legend has it that Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 64) had a dream one
day o f a flying golden deity with a light ring over the bald head. The second day, he
summoned his officials and asked them who that giant was. An official named Fu Yi,
who was known to be a person who knew all strange things, told the emperor that there
was a person known as Buddha in the west, who was very tall, had golden skin and a
light ring over his bald head. Emperor Ming felt that he should not take it lightly and
dispatched emissaries headed by Cai Yin to the western area to seek dharma or the
law. What the omnipotent Buddha mentioned by Fu Yi was in fact Sakyamuni, the
founder of Buddhism. Sakyamuni was bom the son of Suddhodam of the ksatriya
caste, ruler of Kapilavastu, and Maya his wife in the 5th century BC; his personal name
was Siddhartha, or Sarvartfiasiddha. Later, he became the founder of Buddhism. As
the sage and the enlightened one of the Sakya clan, he began his activities to spread
Buddhism at the of 45 until his death at the age of 80. Buddhism in the Sakyamuni time
was primitive, preaching.

Four Noble Truths (namely, the suffering of life, the origin of the suffering, the cessation
of the suffering and the way that leads to this cessation), Noble Eightfold Path (namely,
the right view, the right thought, the right speech, the right action, the right living, the
right effort, the right mindfulness, and the right concentration), and the twelve nidanas,
twelve links in the chain of existence: (1) Ignorance or unenlightenment; (2) action; (3)
consciousness. (4) name and form; (5) the six sense organs; (6) contact, touch. (7)
sensation, feeling; (8) thirst, desire, craving; (9) laying hold of, grasping; (10) being,
existing; (11) birth; (12) old age, death.). While preaching the law, the Buddha
established the ranks of monks and places of enlightenment. What the scriptures often
mention such as Jetavana vihara, venuvana vihara or 'bamboo-grove grove vihara
were all the most famous places of enlightenment. When Sakyamuni was alive, he
taught many doctrines and the rules. But there were no written records. After the death
of the Buddha, his disciples carried out the collection and fixing of the Buddhist canon
on four occasions, which were called assemblies. The first assembly which gathered to
recite the scriptures took place at the Pippala cave at Rajagrha under Ajatasatru, with
notable three disciples of Kasyapa, Ananda and Upali attending together with 500 other
disciples. The procedure was that some disciples recited the doctrines and rules and
after that the attendants would confirm them and then those that reached consensus
were written down to become Buddhist scriptures. Such activity to collect and fix
Buddhist canon was of major importance in passing on the Buddhist doctrines and
rules. There were another two or three similar assemblies in the ensuing 100 200
years. Although the assemblies led to the split into sects, they contributed to the
development of Buddhism. In 271 B.C., the third generation King of M AURYA of
ancient India, King Asoka, came to power and encouraged the spread of Buddhism. He
did not only order the setup of a special organization charged with the task of
spreading Buddhism but also built Buddhist temples and pagodas and sent many
senior monks far and w ide to disseminate Buddhism. Buddhism was spread at the
time mainly along three lines: Sri Lanka to the south, Myanmar to the east and Kashmir
and northern Pakistan and the southeastern part of Afghanistan to the north. On the
northern line, there was the Kusana Dynasty (50-300) whose ruling line descended
from the Yue Zhi, a people, as nomads living in the western part of Gansu Province,
Northwest China, at the beginning of the 2nd century BC and later ruled over most of
the northern Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia. The support
given by the Indo-Scythian King Kaniska III of the Kushan (Kusana) dynasty (78-120
C.E.), a Buddhist convert, supported Buddhist expansion within a vast region that
extended far into (he Central Asian heartland and into Xinjiang of China, Sakyamuni's
experience is marked by four major stages. One is birth. After '500 or 550' previous
incarnations, Sakyamuni finally attained to the state of Bodhisattva, was born in the
Tusita heaven, and descended as a white elephant, through her right side, into the
womb of the immaculate Maya, the purest woman on earth, this was on the 8th day of
the 4th month; next year on the 8th day of the 2nd month he was born from her right
side painlessly as she stood under a tree in the Lumbini garden. Lumbini has thus
become the No. 1 sacred place of Buddhism. The second stage of his life is
enlightenmenL Although born a prince, he was filled with sympathy from childhood.
Seven days after he was born’ his mother Maya died, leaving him to be brought up by
her sister Prajapati; During a ride he first became aware of human suffering in shape of
a sick person, an old man and a funeral. Very upset by these visions of true life,
Siddharta left his family and for seven years lived as an ascetic, only to find out that the
extreme ascetic life was not able to solve the problem of human suffering. Although in
due course he was married to Yasodhara who bore him a son, he left home in search
of truth, became an ascetic, severely disciplined himself, and finally at the age of 35,
under a fig tree ("Bodhi tree), realized that the way of release from the chain of rebirth
and death lay not in asceticism but in moral purity. His third stage is the first discourse,
turning of the dharmacakra, the Wheel of the Law. After he became a Buddha, he told
his five disciples the truth that dawned on him at a deer park. The deer park has thus
become the third sacred place of Buddhism. The last stage is to enter the nirvana,
which is regarded as the supreme realm of the world. The Buddha died under a dual
Saia-tree in Kusinara, which has become the last sacred place of Buddhism. Lumbini
has been established by Buddhist circles of all countries as the No. 1 sacred place of
Buddhism. With the support of UNESCO, Lumbini has set up a development
committee. Now, China, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, France,
Germany, Vietnam, the Republic of Korea and 坤 an have built their respective
Buddhist temples in Lumbini. The magnificent temple built by China is called Zhong
Hua Temple (All-China Temple) with money earmarked by the Chinese government. A
ceremony of opening the eyes of the Buddha image was held after its completion on
May 27, 2000. The Chinese Buddhist Association sent eight monks and one
management person to the temple. This is the first Buddhist temple built by China
outside its territory, thus becoming a window to Chinese Buddhism.

Introduction of Buddhism into China

There is a very popular Chinese story about monk Tang San Zhang to India to fetch the
Buddhist scriptures (628 AD). It is indeed true that Monk Xuan Zhuang went to the
western area to fetch Buddhist scriptures and he was the man who brought home the
largest amount of scriptures. But he was not the first who did so. The earliest
expedition in quest of texts of Buddhist scriptures took place at least seven centuries
earlier.
In the last section, we mentioned the dream of Emperor Ming of the Han dynasty and
the man, Cai Yin, sent by the emperor to seek the Buddha. It was said that Cai met
Kasyapa-Matanga and his companion Gobharana in the western area of China and
invited them to Luoyang in the present-day Henan Province. Matanga was said to know
all about Buddhist classics and often went to states in the western area to disseminate
Buddhism. Story has it that he used the canon of Buddhism to persuade two warring
factions into peace. After Matanga arrived in Luoyang, Emperor Ming treated him with
great ceremony and invited him to translate Buddhist scriptures at the White-Horse
Temple outside the western gate of Luoyang City. He and his companion Gobharana
translated a lot of Buddhist scriptures. The first works completed was what is known as
the Sutra of the Forty-two Sections. The works passed on till today and occupies an
important position in the history of Chinese Buddhism. The Sutra is com piled with
some extracts from various Sutras. It consists of basic Buddhist teachings, particularly
the moral ones, in order to be assimilated more easily in China. When Cai Yin met the
two Indian monks, he also found a painted image of Sakyamuni and he took it back to
Luoyang. Emperor Ming recognized that that was the very golden flying deity with a
light ring over the bald head that appeared in his dream, and he ordered a painter to
paint another copy for worshiping. This is believed to be the first Buddhist image in
China.
But the first Chinese monk who went to the western areas to seek the Buddhist
teachings was said to be Zhu Shixing of the Three Kingdoms period. Zhu was a native
of Yuxian County, Henan Province. He became a monk when very young. He is
believed to be the first to take vow s to undertake the commandments and officially
became a Bhiksu or a monk. So Zhu Shixing is regarded as the first Chinese monk in
the history of Chinese Buddhism. In the course of studying Buddhist classics, he felt
that the translations of some Buddhist scriptures were not accurate enough and
decided to go to the western areas in quest of the originals. In 260, he took the trouble
of arduous journey to Yudian (the present-day Hotan in Xinjiang). There he found the
long-desired prajnaparamita sutra in the Sanskrit original. It has 90 chapters, running
up to more than 600,000 words. But Zhu did not go any further west; neither did he
return home. Instead, he asked others to take the Buddhist scriptures home before he
died in Yudian.
But the first Chinese who really went the hometown of Sakyamuni in quest of Buddhist
teachings is Mong Fa Xian (Fa Hsien) which means "illustrious master of the law, of the
Eastern in Dynasty, as the history of Buddhism recognizes. With a secular name of
Gong, Fa Xian was a native of Wuyang of Pingyang Prefecture (the present-day
Qiuxian County, Xiangyang Prefecture of Shanxi Province). He had three elder
brothers who all died young. Fearing that he would, too, die in infancy, his father
followed the local traditional practice of sending the three- year-old Fa Xian to a temple
to undertake the ten commandments of sramanera; but he was too young to be left in
the temple alone and had to be brought home. A few years later, Fa Xian caught a
serious ill, almost at the verge of dying. He was then sent back to the temple. In the
third day after he returned to the temple, he was magically recovered. From then on, he
refused to leave the temple. His mother had to buy a small house near the temple in
order to take care of him. After he became a monk, he immersed himself in the reading
of Buddhist scriptures. Gradually, he found that the translations were incomplete and
was determined to learn about Buddhist traditions in India and to discover authentic
Buddhist writings. In 399, together with his fellow monks Hui Jing, Dao Zheng, Hui Ying
and Hui Sui、he set off on his journey to India. They traveled through the vast shifting
sand and lifeless desert. Despite his age and illness, he persisted in the harsh natural
conditions. He was grieved over the death o f his fellow monk Hui Ying, who died of a
disease and Hui Jing who died o f cold on the way. Only he and Dao Zheng, whom he
met on the way, continued the westward journey. They at last arrived at the northern
border of India. It was 402. They visited as many Buddhist sacred shrines as they
could, especially those associated with the presence of the Buddha. Fa Xian studied
hard Sanscrit, copied canonic teachings and painted Buddha images. He arrived at
Celon (Sri Lanka) in 409. It took him 15 years to complete the journey of more than 30
countries. He recovered a large quantity of Buddhist writings and returned to China in
412 and then devoted the rest of his life to translating them. He is regarded as one of
the greatest monks in the history of Chinese Buddhism. Fa Xian also wrote a book,
which was later translated as A Record of the Buddhistic Kingdoms. The book has
received a high appraisal from historians, geographers, archaeologists and Buddhists
in the world. Another great monk who made great contributions to the introduction of
Buddhism into China was monk Xuan Zhuang of the Tang Dynasty.